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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Pure Pop For Then People -- Crowded House

Neil Finn's entry in the "Men that look like old lesbians" sweepstakes. He's been going to the beauty parlor with Ron Wood and Jeff Beck, I see. Neil's fronting the current iteration of Crowded House in the video. They were semi-big in the eighties. Big enough to still be working, at any rate. They're from New Zealand and Australia and other upside-down places.

He can still sing, I also see. Before Auto-Tune, if you wanted to make money in pop music, you sort of had to be able to sing. It wasn't absolutely necessary, of course. You used to be able to mumble into a microphone, then the producer would put all sorts of sturm und drang all around it, and you could have a hit; see: Don't You Want Me Baby, by Human League. But crooners have an easier time of it, and have less trouble having more than one bite of the top forty apple.

Crowded House was one of those eighties bands -- A Flock of Seagulls; ABC, The Bangles; Thompson Twins; Duran Duran; Escape Club; The Fixx; Simple Minds; Simply Red; Howard Jones; XTC; Dan Hartman; Icehouse; Level 42; Psychedelic Furs; Hair Cut 100; Tears for Fears; Wang Chung; World Party -- bands that are growing interchangeable with the decades slipping by. If you put them all on the same bill, and they all wore matching suits, they could all play each other's tunes and not many people would notice. But you always notice when people sing well.

Oh geez ya had to go and find the world's one Crowded House zealot.President of the CH fan club is not a position to be taken lightly, especially when you're the only member.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Crowded-House-Australian-postcard-with-stamp-2001-/220929514648?pt=AU_Music_Publications&hash=item33706cdc98

I realize Eighties music isn't everybody's thing, but I like to think I'd still be able to pick the Bangles out of that crowd. And Alannah Currie from the Thompson Twins. If you know what I mean and I think you do.

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About Me

I lost my job making glass eyes for merry-go-round horses back in my youth. I decided to become a mercenary commando soldier, you know, hired gun, but unwisely chose the Salvation Army as my outfit. I never got to kill anybody, and I've got tinnitus in my right ear from the bell now.